I get Zits emailed to me on a daily basis. The creator, is, in my humble opinion, awesome. This has become my favourite comic.
I’m probably not allowed to post that, not sure. Well, if someone wants me to take it down, I will. Please note, I do NOT make any profit from my blog. I am advertising the best comic strip going. 🙂
Well, I had my first item stolen in Calgary.
I was just outside with my cup of coffee having a morning smoke. OK, I know, I need to quit. It is bad for my health, that’s for sure. It is also bad for the pocketbook. Cigarettes are about $2.50 more per pack in Alberta than they were in Ontario. A good reason there, on top of them being bad…
Anyway, I went to dispose of my butt in a jar that I had sitting beside my step and the jar was gone. I presume that someone coming through (a bum most likely) decided to take it to smoke the used buts, even though a lot of them would be wet as there was water in the jar from rain (and snow this past weekend).
Not the theft of the week I am sure, but I was surprised. Maybe this is another sign that I should quit. I am feeling that it is the time to quit anyway – seeing as I quit cold-turkey, I need to have that correct feeling otherwise the quitting will be too hard. I get cranky (crankier than usual) when I quit, but the benefits outweigh anything else. So, it will either be at the end of this pack (tomorrow I would guess) or perhaps one more pack.
On the baseball front, I received an email from the Supervisor of Umpires for Little League in Calgary – he passed my name along to the Scheduler for Southern Alberta. About 1 minute after the email comes to me, I get a phone call.
I am sent a bunch of stuff with information, etc., and I fill in the required information and send it back. He asks about my equipment which I sold before I left. Well, I didn’t actually sell it, I left it with AD and he will try to sell it for me. I need to follow-up with him to see what’s become of it. Anyway, he offers to lend me a sent of gear, very nice of him.
I called Baseball Alberta to get some information on getting certified since all of their clinics have already taken place. I need to contact the Supervisor of Umpires for Alberta and see if he will allow me to get certified without going to a clinic. I emailed the Supervisor in Ontario to see if he will email me a letter outlining my experience so that I can pass it along.
The gentleman that I spoke with at Baseball Alberta also passed me onto a contact for a baseball organization just outside of Calgary to see if they need any experienced coaches. All in all, very helpful. I have found everyone that I have spoken with here to be very friendly and welcoming – it is quite nice.
So, I am waiting to hear back – the town is called Strathmore and it is about 1/2 hour east of Calgary. No worse than when I coached in Hamilton with the Thunderbirds for sure.
It looks like I will either be umpiring or coaching – likely not both though. If I coach, I doubt that I will want to umpire much at the same time. My passion is still coaching, I do enjoy being an umpire as well though and the extra money always comes in handy. Since I will need to replace my equipment and uniforms, the money that I make this season will likely go towards paying for that stuff anyway so it will work itself out.
Either way, I plan on taking Zeus and Blondie out with me. They enjoy it and typically are pretty good at ball parks.
I went to the Calgary Pet Show today at Canada Olympic Park. Quite a nice facility, of course it was, it was used during the 1988 Olympics. The ski jumps looked very amazing, I can’t imagine actually jumping off of one mind you, I couldn’t handle simple skiing, never mind jumping off of a tower on skis…
I was specifically looking for a vet and a boarding place – found several of both.
One of the vet clinics that I met with is a 24/7 facility which would be great. I could take the dogs for appointments in the evenings or on weekends. All of the boarding places sounded amazing – I am going to tour a few and see what I think. I will likely try some day boarding in the near future so that the dogs can sort of get used to it. I will be travelling for work here and there and in September I will be in Ontario for 5 days or so. It will cost around $50 per day to board both of them, so that isn’t too bad really.
Successful morning and part of the afternoon anyway. Now I am taking the dogs out, not sure where yet, but we will find some place cool.
You know, it is really nice actually having a reason to have a weekend. For 9 months, the weekend really didn’t matter to me, at all. Monday, Thursday or Saturday, what’s the difference when you aren’t working?
Now, I am working 8:45AM – 5:30PM, get a 1:15 lunch (to go home for the dogs) and am home by 6PM. I leave the house between 7:30 and 7:45. I do like to get into work a little early, although the other day when I left at 8:10, I noticed that the traffic was a lot lighter, so, perhaps I will start leaving a little later. I don’t want to be late of course but thus far that hasn’t come close to coming true.
Today was interesting. I don’t remember the last time that I saw snow in May. St. Catharines typically doesn’t get any snow during May, I am sure that there has been at some point but I don’t remember it. Well, today it was snowing, quite heavy at times as well. It didn’t accumulate on the roads but it did on the ground – 3″ perhaps? It was gone by dinner time when the temperature got up to nearly 10 degrees. So, I guess I have seen it all now. People tell me to expect more.
Well, I have always said that I prefer cold to hot – I do. Much easier to throw on an extra layer or two than to strip it off – believe me, people don’t want me to walk around naked on the streets.
Anyway, that was today. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice and I plan on taking the dogs for a good walk. Hope the weather holds out.
I have had an excellent experience with Moores in Calgary.
I purchased quite a few new clothes and some shoes for work. Luckily, everything (except for the shoes) was buy one, get one free – a great deal to be sure.
Anyway, I purchased a number of shirts and what not, most are sized at the neck and all of those fit perfectly. One shirt that was an XL was a little tight. OK, I will admit that I am not “trim”, but I have ALWAYS fit into XL shirts…
Anyway, I brought back a few of the shirts that I wasn’t sure about. Two of the shirts were a different brand and they fit perfectly. I exchanged another shirt with a different one and the store manager worked everything so that I didn’t owe anything, even though some of the exchanges were priced higher than what I originally purchased. Very nice.
The best part and one that I did not expect nor ask for was with one of the pairs of shoes that I bought. When I was cutting the tag off of the shoe, the scissors slipped and I nicked the leather, leaving a small mark and cut in the leather. He asked me what had happened and exchanged the shoes – insisted on it.
As far as customer service goes, Gary is the tops and he has earned my business for as long as I am in Calgary – it was a pleasure dealing with him. Thanks Gary. Thanks Moores.
I had a bad experience with Jysk. It was a bad experience that the staff turned around, not quite a 180 degree turn, but they did their best. In case you haven’t heard of it, it is sort of like Ikea but not as nice as Ikea.
I wanted a computer desk, something small. They had one on sale for $24.99. I figured that I would order it online to pick up at one of their stores near my place. I paid for it with my credit card. I received an email indicating that the order had gone to the store and they would have it ready – great !!!
I go to the store after work and am told that they haven’t had this particular desk in for a number of weeks. Oh, ok. The clerk argues with me that the email that I was sent indicated that the desk was on order, not at the store. I showed her the email.
Another clerk was helpful, tried calling the other store – no dice.
I was told that they hadn’t had a delivery in a few weeks. A few weeks? How do they maintain stock? I asked when they thought my desk would arrive. I was told it might be Monday, maybe the week after – she wasn’t sure.
I asked for a refund. I couldn’t get one at the store, wasn’t too surprised by that I guess, I paid online, I had to contact those people for a refund.
So, I contact them via email and got an immediate response. They have processed the refund, it will take a few days to appear on my credit card account. You have to love how they take the funds from the card immediately but for refunds, you have to wait.
Anyway, as of tonight the refund is on my card.
It wasn’t a great experience and I may shop in the store again but I doubt that I will shop online.
At least the people at Jysk tried to help, the manager there wasn’t any help at all and I REALLY hate being argued with by sales people – if I know I am correct, it is very irritating. Perhaps the manager of Jysk needs to sit down with the manager of Moores and figure out a thing or two.
I doubt that will happen…
Yes, today is May the 4th, Star Wars day. I am sure it will trend on Twitter, May the Fourth be with you. Personally, I have always thought of myself more on the Dark Side of the Force than the Light Side so, I guess I really wouldn’t use that term, but, who am I to argue with the masses.
OK, you have a point, I always argue with the masses, just for arguments sake.
I will admit, I am a Star Wars fan, not a huge fan, I don’t have a room dedicated to Star Wars, I have a few odds and ends. I used to have a huge collection of toys, I had the Millennium Falcon, very cool. I sold all of that stuff, years ago. I am old enough that I can remember, (not well mind you, I was young) going to see Star Wars in the theatre in 1977. I was with my Mom and sister (BD), we had just saw some other movie downtown (does anyone from St. Catharines remember when there were two movie theatres in downtown St. Catharines?) and we walked past the second theatre which was playing Star Wars. I guess the two of them had already seen it and they thought that I might enjoy it, even though I was only six years old.
Well, they started me on a Star Wars craze that lasted through my childhood. I had Star Wars sheets, curtains, toys, books, etc. I had one of the best collections of any of my friends. I played with them as well, they were well used. Now, had I known how much an unwrapped original 1977 Luke Skywalker figure would be worth in 2012 (wow, 35 years?) if it was still in its package, would I have played with them? Probably – what else was I going to do?
So, again, today is May 4th, Star Wars day. All I have to add is Live Long and Prosper.
I finally have furniture. I found a nice leather set, 3 piece sofa with a chaise on one end and a chair, black leather, soft, comfortable with baseball stitching. Quite a nice set really. The dogs are very happy having somewhere to lay down, other than the floor. They both slept beside me last night while I watched some tv – everyone’s happy.
I am renting this from Rent-A-Centre. The two delivery guys were interesting – a bit klutzy, but nice guys anyway. The driver had issues finding my place, even though it is right around the corner from my house. Oh well. The stuff got brought inside, nothing was damaged, all is good.
I start my day today at the Delta Airport Hotel Calgary. There is some sort of presentation and some of the big wigs from Toronto will be there. I will get to meet the CEO, don’t remember his name at the moment. Not sure what time I will arrive at the office this morning, 10am maybe, late start anyway.
I am enjoying the new job – almost done my second week. The days go by pretty quickly, lots of stuff to learn, lots to do. It is a little slow after 4:30 or so in the afternoon. After working until 4pm for so long, that extra hour and a bit seems to take a long time.
I am starting to feel settled in – I am starting to learn the city and when I go places, I remember the roads and what not, I can make it to quite a few places without my GPS – aren’t I special? LOL – I know that there is a large chunk of Calgary that I haven’t seen and some of it I am sure I won’t see. I’ve found some good weekend spots to take the dogs for walks – there are some really nice pathways along the river and people are good about their dogs being on leash – that’s a good thing. There are some dog parks around (off-leash) but Zeus doesn’t get along with his canine companions. Blondie does so at some point, I will likely take her to a dog park – that will mean leaving Zeus at home, seems cruel, but, I want Blondie to be able to socialize with other dogs. Can’t not let her do that, just because of “Mr. Cranky Pants”.
Well, I need to go and fold laundry and take the beasts for a walk. It isn’t raining this morning and I think that’s the first morning this week that it hasn’t been. Enjoy your day 🙂
When I purchased my first Jeep, I was told by several people that Jeep Wrangler owners wave at one another when they pass. Just Wranglers, not any of the other brands.
I found this to be true. I have travelled to various parts of the US, true there. All over Ontario, yes – Manitoba as well.
For some reason, Jeep owners in Alberta don’t wave at one another. I tried waving to a few when I first got here and no return waves plus a couple of odd looks. Currently, my Jeep has Ontario custom plates so they were likely wondering, who’s this guy from Ontario waving at me – does he know me? It is almost like they have never heard of the Wrangler Wave. Oh well, I won’t lose any sleep over it.
I purchased a lamp tonight from Kijiji. It was $10 and had 5 adjustable heads on it, should provide good light in the living room. Now I just need 3 more, one for each bedroom.
I tried to purchase a computer desk at Jysk (I think that’s how it is spelt) and they did not have any in stock at either store in Calgary – that sucks… It was on sale for $24.99, a pretty small desk but I just need room for a keyboard and a monitor and it’ll do that just fine.
My couch and chair get delivered tomorrow around 6:15pm. I am looking forward to sitting somewhere comfy at home and I am sure the dogs are as well.
I have removed sections of a few posts on here. They weren’t that bad, but, I guess we need to keep things clean in the cyber world.
So, I cut out some stuff. What I will say is this:
FOJHASBYBAAHNMS.
There. Can anyone guess what that means? I doubt it. I likely won’t remember after a few seconds of submitting this post. LOL
I am getting settled into the new place. I still have some unpacking to do but, of course, I am off today and tomorrow.
I met with the President of Baseball Calgary this morning. Doesn’t sound like they need any coaches for this season but I am willing to help out in other areas.
I had Telus Optik TV and Internet setup this morning as well – seems like an awesome service.
I am going to rent a couch, short term from Rent-a-Centre, I need something other than a lawn chair to sit on – so do the dogs… I may get a washer and dryer as well, not sure. Gotta see what the prices are like.
My first week at work went well. I have received my parking pass for a garage right next to my office and I can start using it on Monday (or is it Tuesday). I think that I am really going to enjoy it there.
Anyway, off to do some running around, then, I think a Saturday afternoon nap. 🙂
Kevin's Ramblings... 